Paths of the Forest
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Seiran Xar
- Outsider
- Posts: 11
- Joined: Mon Oct 24, 2011 3:10 pm
- Name: Kana Seiran Xar
- Race: Human
Re: Paths of the Forest
Seiran shrugged and grabbed some meat to carry instead. Even injured, he could probably carry several times what she could. An inability to breathe properly tended to make it difficult to become strong. She followed him back to the tent. The meat would need to be smoked as soon as possible, but for now, she sat it inside the tent and went to collect more.
Re: Paths of the Forest
Wulf checked the sky. Just a few more hours. He side was paining him a bit more than it had before he left the tent, but it was nothing he couldn't handle. He had hurt worse and for longer. Following the woman back to the site of death, he watched her walk. She moved different and looked different than any human that he had seen in the cities. He had seen many with the strange ink markings on their body, but hers was even styled and colored different. He had even seen a giant of a man and a wasted looking boy with tattoos the same color as the spring sky when there was no clouds in it. But never any that twined like hers. The colors even were different. They were the same colors he had always seen as a child, but they seemed.... different somehow.
Shrugging, he continued to follow her back to the rest of the meat. Who knows? he thought, She may let me take enough of this meat back home to feed Ashaba and her children.
Shrugging, he continued to follow her back to the rest of the meat. Who knows? he thought, She may let me take enough of this meat back home to feed Ashaba and her children.
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Seiran Xar
- Outsider
- Posts: 11
- Joined: Mon Oct 24, 2011 3:10 pm
- Name: Kana Seiran Xar
- Race: Human
Re: Paths of the Forest
When all useful parts of bear had been taken to the tent, Kana sat down against a tree and allowed herself to take a few deep, coughing breaths. Perhaps she should make some herbal tea to ease her breathing, but it always needed to be so strong to have any effect on a Child of the Serpent. She was running low on the necessary herbs. There was nothing for it -- she was going to have to settle down for awhile and regrow her stock. At this rate, she may not make it back to Rakara in time for her child to be born in its tribe. She vaguely suspected that she should be making more of an effort to make sure that happened. It was the worry that it wouldn't survive that caused her to hesitate, she knew. To go back for such an event only to have the child die in her arms within a week... better not to hope or plan until she was sure she would have a child to raise.
She looked at the yelurdexai, the one who shared her name in a different language and who, like so many of these people, gave no indication of his totem. Many non-Rakri didn't even know their totems; perhaps he was one of those. She couldn't bring herself to address him by name, though. Not only because calling another by your own name was weird, but because he was practically a stranger. Not that names were their biggest communication problem.
She took a swig from her waterskin and offered it to the man, reminding herself to build her permanent residence slightly closer to the river. It would be good manners for her patient to offer her some of his kill for her healing services (and it was such a well-established practice among the places she had travelled that it didn't occur to Kana to even doubt that he would), but she hoped he wouldn't leave her with too much to carry to a new location.
She looked at the yelurdexai, the one who shared her name in a different language and who, like so many of these people, gave no indication of his totem. Many non-Rakri didn't even know their totems; perhaps he was one of those. She couldn't bring herself to address him by name, though. Not only because calling another by your own name was weird, but because he was practically a stranger. Not that names were their biggest communication problem.
She took a swig from her waterskin and offered it to the man, reminding herself to build her permanent residence slightly closer to the river. It would be good manners for her patient to offer her some of his kill for her healing services (and it was such a well-established practice among the places she had travelled that it didn't occur to Kana to even doubt that he would), but she hoped he wouldn't leave her with too much to carry to a new location.
Re: Paths of the Forest
Wulf lifted the water skin and squeezed it above his mouth, getting a mouthful of the life giving liquid. Looking to the sky, he watched as the first fingers of the sun began to creep over the edge of the trees. He stood and got to work, taking one of the bloody and broken arrows and drawing a circle. Hopefully she would understand that meant not to disturb him. Sitting in the middle, he began to breathe slowly and slowed his heartbeat down, and lifted his face to the sky and closed his eyes. When the sun touched him for the first time that day, he smiled. He inhaled deeply, and began to draw the rays into him.
It was not an explainable feeling. He felt hot, and warm, and cold, and sharp, all at once. It started at the center of his chest, and radiated the feeling of warmth outwards from there. When it hit areas where he was hurt, which he had forgotten there was so many, it radiated cold until the ice hurt melt in the warmth of the sun blood. He felt the flesh knit together and the bones begin to heal, the bruises fading from his body and the lumps going down. He realized he was singing, most likely badly, but worries about how you looked or sounded was not something you had when you talked in the early morning suns presence. It was a beacon of hope and healing, and would burn the bad feelings and hurt from him like an early morning fog in the lowland fields.
Wulf opened his eyes as he knew the healing was done. He sang the spell away, and he knew his voice was field with brittle sadness. Once you became one with the sun, it was hard to leave that warmth. His mother had told him of members of her people that had a similar ability that would find a high mountain and sing to the sun until they became one with it, because they could not stand to leave its embrace. Wulf had always said he would never do such a thing, but the older he got, the more he thought about it when he had to leave the suns embrace.
scrubbing a portion of the circle, Wulf grabbed his bow and the bearskin. He started packing meat into it. At the end of the day, it was his kill, and he would share, but he had come to hunt for a reason. Ashaba and her bairns were that reason, and he would not go home empty handed for their empty mouths and bellies. He pulled a large piece of canvas from his pack, something he used for rain water collection in the forest. He moved the meat into two piles, one on the skin the other on the canvas. After he had loaded up at least 150 pounds of the meat in his skin, he looked to his healer. Gesturing to the meat and fur, he pointed to her. He worked the words out, and said, "Yours. Thank you."
He had nothing else to give in thanks, so he began to roll up the skin around the meat to carry it across his shoulders.
It was not an explainable feeling. He felt hot, and warm, and cold, and sharp, all at once. It started at the center of his chest, and radiated the feeling of warmth outwards from there. When it hit areas where he was hurt, which he had forgotten there was so many, it radiated cold until the ice hurt melt in the warmth of the sun blood. He felt the flesh knit together and the bones begin to heal, the bruises fading from his body and the lumps going down. He realized he was singing, most likely badly, but worries about how you looked or sounded was not something you had when you talked in the early morning suns presence. It was a beacon of hope and healing, and would burn the bad feelings and hurt from him like an early morning fog in the lowland fields.
Wulf opened his eyes as he knew the healing was done. He sang the spell away, and he knew his voice was field with brittle sadness. Once you became one with the sun, it was hard to leave that warmth. His mother had told him of members of her people that had a similar ability that would find a high mountain and sing to the sun until they became one with it, because they could not stand to leave its embrace. Wulf had always said he would never do such a thing, but the older he got, the more he thought about it when he had to leave the suns embrace.
scrubbing a portion of the circle, Wulf grabbed his bow and the bearskin. He started packing meat into it. At the end of the day, it was his kill, and he would share, but he had come to hunt for a reason. Ashaba and her bairns were that reason, and he would not go home empty handed for their empty mouths and bellies. He pulled a large piece of canvas from his pack, something he used for rain water collection in the forest. He moved the meat into two piles, one on the skin the other on the canvas. After he had loaded up at least 150 pounds of the meat in his skin, he looked to his healer. Gesturing to the meat and fur, he pointed to her. He worked the words out, and said, "Yours. Thank you."
He had nothing else to give in thanks, so he began to roll up the skin around the meat to carry it across his shoulders.
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Seiran Xar
- Outsider
- Posts: 11
- Joined: Mon Oct 24, 2011 3:10 pm
- Name: Kana Seiran Xar
- Race: Human
Re: Paths of the Forest
Kana watched the Yelurdexai's ritual as she fuelled the fire. She watched with the detachment of somebody not really looking, not staring so as not to distract him. It was something that healers learned to do young. His wounds weren't visible under the bandages, but she could tell what he was doing from the changes in the way he moved. It didn't shock her as much as it would have had they met soon after she'd left home, but people exhibiting magic not native to their totems still creeped her out a little. Things fell down, bitter food could make you sick, magic was totem-specific. That's how the world worked, although apparently only in Rakara. And whatever this man was, he was not a Child of the Serpent. Of that she could be certain. Not that his magic was exactly like hers; she'd never be able to heal a wound so deep. Although his abilities did explain why he was so careless with his health.
She watched him divide the meat and nodded in thanks at his gift. It was a little too much, really, and it would be trying for a single, disabled woman to cure it all before it spoiled. Difficult, but not impossible, and here she had no idea how often she would have clients. She would need wood, a lot of wood, and a clear area of forest, unless...
A town. Of course. There would be a butcher in the town. Kana covered her head with her shawl, quickly strung her belongings into a tree (not that she was worried about them; the leather of her pack was treated to taste horrible to any curious wildlife), and picked up as much meat as she could carry. It would take a few trips, perhaps, but the meat was enough to stave off starvation for some time if she had to; at least until she learned the best foraging paths. With a quick glance around to get her bearings, she turned in the direction of Shim and started walking.
She watched him divide the meat and nodded in thanks at his gift. It was a little too much, really, and it would be trying for a single, disabled woman to cure it all before it spoiled. Difficult, but not impossible, and here she had no idea how often she would have clients. She would need wood, a lot of wood, and a clear area of forest, unless...
A town. Of course. There would be a butcher in the town. Kana covered her head with her shawl, quickly strung her belongings into a tree (not that she was worried about them; the leather of her pack was treated to taste horrible to any curious wildlife), and picked up as much meat as she could carry. It would take a few trips, perhaps, but the meat was enough to stave off starvation for some time if she had to; at least until she learned the best foraging paths. With a quick glance around to get her bearings, she turned in the direction of Shim and started walking.
Re: Paths of the Forest
Wulf watched the woman walk away. Shrugging, he gathered his gear and began to take a different path. Maybe I'll run into some more meat along the way....
When he finally arrived back to his run down hovel in Marn, the people had already began to whisper amongst themselves about when it was a good time to break in and hawk his items. He could not hear them of course, but the way they looked at him told him everything he needed to know. They would have been disappointed, there wasn't much in the home besides hunting supplies and furs.
The people he had went hunting for also stood there. The little children of this area had ran to him as soon as he arrived, and were following him and pestering him with questions he couldn't hear, their little lips moving to fast to read. Smiling, he dropped the bear fur on the ground and opened it up, showing off the bear meat he had, plus the three quail and two rabbits he had managed to get on his way back.
They would all eat well tonight.
When he finally arrived back to his run down hovel in Marn, the people had already began to whisper amongst themselves about when it was a good time to break in and hawk his items. He could not hear them of course, but the way they looked at him told him everything he needed to know. They would have been disappointed, there wasn't much in the home besides hunting supplies and furs.
The people he had went hunting for also stood there. The little children of this area had ran to him as soon as he arrived, and were following him and pestering him with questions he couldn't hear, their little lips moving to fast to read. Smiling, he dropped the bear fur on the ground and opened it up, showing off the bear meat he had, plus the three quail and two rabbits he had managed to get on his way back.
They would all eat well tonight.